


Two Girls In The Green Room

by bofoddity



Category: Carrie (1976)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Mental Institution, Gen, Introspection, Roommates, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 21:53:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5472005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bofoddity/pseuds/bofoddity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sue Snell and Carrie White, survivors of The Black Prom, are patients at Motton Psychiatric Ward. This is their normal morning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two Girls In The Green Room

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wonderwanda](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wonderwanda/gifts).



7: 00 am

Carrie was dreaming of her mother when a loud bang on the door shook her awake.

"Thirty minutes!" a man's voice called out, helping the reality set in fast: her mother was dead and she was in a hospital. As usual, Carrie's chest grew heavy with both despair and relief over that realization, and feeling that weight made her want to return to the world of dreams again. Knowing that wasn't an option, Carrie glared at the pale green ceiling for a while before sitting up, her eyes stopping at the window with the thick, ocher yellow curtains for a moment before moving over to the second bed in the room, by which Sue Snell stood.

"Good morning," Carrie said; she was always sure to be quiet enough that Sue could easily ignore her if she wished. Some days Sue took that bait, but today Sue looked up from the salmon red sheets of her bed that she was busy straightening up, smiling as she met Carrie's eyes.

"Good morning, Carrie." After that greeting Sue circled to the other side of her bed so her back was turned to Carrie, which was a signal for Carrie to start dressing up. During the first painful weeks of their life together, Carrie had needed the presence of the nurse to be able to change clothes - well, to do anything at all - around Sue, and even these days Carrie needed to be able to observe the other girl as she got dressed and made her own bed. To Sue's credit, she never complained.

( _but what right would she even have_ )

"I'm ready," Carrie called out after she was done. Sue nodded to her as she turned around to face her, and together they left the room to join the other patients for breakfast.

7:30 am

Carrie White shouldn't have been alive.

Sue felt bad every time she thought that, but she couldn't help it. Everyone was saying different things now, but in the beginning that's what the newspapers, doctors, Sue's family, everyone else who had ever heard about The Black Prom had thought too. When the firemen had arrived to the ashy remains of the White home, they should have heard no broken howls coming from beneath the ruins. The girl they dug up, bleeding and holding onto her mother's dead body like a vice, shouldn't have been breathing anymore.

But Carrie had, and she had been taken to the hospital, and after the press found out that Carrie was the /other/ living witness to the events of the prom, nobody could stop talking about her. Back then Sue had been too shell-shocked to really care, but not shell-shocked enough to not think about Carrie, too. When Carrie had disappeared from the public altogether, Sue had wondered if she had succumbed to her injuries after all, whether that was a good thing or not.

"Sue," Carrie said.

Carrie never raised her voice, but they had lived together long enough for Sue to know that this quiet tone meant she was getting nervous, so Sue stopped holding the breakfast line and followed Carrie to the dining side of the cafeteria. On the surface, no one could tell that Carrie had ever gone through the ordeals she had; she bore no obvious scars, her stride showed no signs of pain, her whole presence was as slight and unobtrusive as it had always been. It was like nothing had ever happened to her.

The rest of the world liked to pretend so, that The Black Prom had been a freak accident and nothing more. But even if the worlds of both Sue and Carrie had been rocked to their cores, Sue knew that some things had indeed remained the same for Carrie. That other people were to be feared and distrusted was one such thing. That Sue was one of those people was another.

8:30 am

"What do you have today?" Sue whispered to Carrie at the day room.

Sue was always trying to have conversations with her. Simple things most of the time; what was their schedule of the day, special things that might be happening at the hospital, gossip they might have heard. Even though they had lived together for quite some time, Carrie still found those conversations uncomfortable, but some days she just didn't have the strength to try to fight them off.

"I'm meeting Dr. Ferguson this morning," she replied, keeping her eyes on the nurses that were rehearsing the hospital rules to everyone present. She knew them already, but she wanted to be ready in case they wanted to ask patients any questions, even though they never did. "I've been dreaming of my mother." Her fingers clenched in helpless, angry reflex over those words; she wasn't supposed to say that.

"I'm sorry," Sue whispered, her voice frustratingly gentle. Carrie shook her head, trying to chase her anger away, trying to look calm as she turned to Sue and asked:

"And what will you be doing, Sue?"

Sue's eyes were full of concern, and Carrie wasn't sure whether that concern was for Carrie or for Sue herself, but Sue hid it quickly as she replied:

"I have group therapy in the morning." Sue looked away from Carrie, sighing a little. "I wish they didn't make me go there, I never have anything to say."

"I'm sure you would make lots of friends there." Again something Carrie hadn't meant to say, not when there was no way she could say that in any lighter tone, with any less bitterness. As Sue stiffened and went quiet, Carrie turned her attention back to the hospital staff, hoping that this was the end of Sue trying to pretend to be her friend for today.

9:30 am

At the group meeting, Sue made sure to nod along with everyone else to appear at least a little attentive. That was all she ever did during these sessions; there was no way she could talk about her own worries here, when she knew for sure no one else would understand. No one else had lost everything during a night that should have been the most special one in their lives.

( _to think my life wasn't always this_ )

As a blond young man began to talk about how hard it was to stay connected to reality, Sue thought about the girl she lived with, the only other person who could have possibly understood what she was going through, the girl who could barely tolerate Sue's company, whose company Sue could barely tolerate.

( _I've seen you looking at me Carrie your eyes are so bright and angry it's like you're just waiting for a chance to choke me_ )

Carrie White, the girl who was an orphan, whose own mother had tried to kill her ( _they say she stabbed you how can a mother stab their own daughter_ ), the girl who had been at the prom when the fire had started ( _did you have something to do with that Carrie_ ), when something had fallen on Tommy ( _was that you too Carrie_ ), when Tommy had died ( _was it you Carrie was it you tell me Carrie was it you_ ). Surely there had to be a reason why Carrie had been the only one to walk out of the school alive?

( _how can YOU hate ME so much when I should hate YOU Carrie YOU killed them all I know you did what right do YOU have to be angry at ME_ )

"Susan," the therapist said softly, "is something wrong?"

The whole group was looking at her had such gentle eyes; unable to stand that, Sue hid her face in the crook of her elbow.

11:30 am

Dr. Ferguson was a nice man, but even though Carrie never had much to say to him, she was always exhausted after her sessions with him. He seemed to have so much faith in her future, in the belief that Carrie had one in the first place. Carrie was sure he wouldn't be saying that if he knew what she had done, the evil she was capable of doing.

"I should have died in that fire," she had told him today too, calmly; there was no need to get upset over facts. "It would have only been right. God would have been right to punish me."

"But if that was the case," Dr. Ferguson had said, "then why are you here?"

She didn't know. She was afraid of the answer.

11:45 am

Lunch would be in fifteen minutes, and Sue knew Carrie would be in their room instead of the day room or any other places where the patients hung around with each other. She would be lying in bed, probably, perhaps even sleeping; if that were the case, it would be the rare moment during daytime when Sue caught Carrie with her guard down. When she was just a girl, like Sue was.

As she headed towards their room, Sue thought of moments like that, seconds when they both had run out of anger and bitterness and could just be. How she hoped to catch such moment to-

Carrie was sitting on the edge on the bed, still awake but looking spent. She glanced up at Sue when Sue stepped into the room, her body tensing a little, but her face remained the same as it had been before Sue had entered. Open. Vulnerable.

Just like she had been when Sue had first decided to take responsibility of her, when Sue had given up her own chance to go to the prom.

"Will you be coming for lunch?" Sue asked. "They say there'll be mashed potatoes and sausages today."

Things may not have worked out that time, but this was another time. This time, there was no prom, no Tommy, nothing in between them; just, Sue, Carrie and all the demons they carried in their hearts.

This time, Sue would make things right.

"I will," Carrie replied.


End file.
